Adjunct professor pay in Massachusetts, per course
From real adjunct and lecturer postings at Massachusetts colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.
- Median per course · Massachusetts
- $6,000
- Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
- $3,735 – $7,225
- Typical range (5th–95th)
- $1,200 – $10,000
- Institutions disclosing pay
- 39
Based on 303 listings that disclose per-course pay.
Community colleges in Massachusetts: median $7,562 per course (n=20); all institutions: $6,000.
Highest-paying institutions in Massachusetts
Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay listings.
- Harvard University$11,500n=3
- Tufts University$9,669n=3
- Boston College$8,250n=5
- Babson College$8,238n=7
- Mount Wachusett Community College$7,562n=19
- Boston University$7,500n=4
- Bentley University$7,225n=20
- Brandeis University$6,573n=41
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute$6,500n=22
- Simmons University$6,395n=19
- Elms College$6,000n=3
By discipline
Disciplines with at least five disclosed-pay listings in Massachusetts.
- Humanities$7,562n=5
- Music & Performing Arts$7,480n=11
- Philosophy & Religion$7,225n=7
- History$7,225n=7
- Visual & Fine Arts$7,037n=6
- Accounting & Finance$6,899n=10
- Computer Science & IT$6,573n=13
- Engineering$6,573n=14
- Mathematics & Statistics$6,250n=13
- English & Writing$6,000n=19
- Social Work$5,583n=6
- Psychology$5,500n=15
- Communications & Media$5,271n=12
- Biology & Life Sciences$5,064n=22
- Sociology$5,003n=6
Twelve-month trend
$5,900Nov 2025
$7,562Dec 2025
$7,562Jan 2026
$7,562Feb 2026
$7,562Mar 2026
$3,575Apr 2026
$6,573May 2026
$4,005Jun 2026
$6,000Jul 2026
$4,333Aug 2026
$6,250Sep 2026
$6,395Oct 2026
Median per-course pay of listings posted each month.
What the median means per year
Adjuncts are paid per course, so annual income depends on load. At $6,000 per course:
- 2 courses × 2 terms
- $24,000
- 3 courses × 2 terms
- $36,000
- 4 courses × 3 terms
- $72,000
Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load that would trigger benefits eligibility.
Where these numbers come from
- Every figure is computed from adjunct, lecturer, and part-time faculty postings that OpenLecture tracks across 4,000+ U.S. institutions, refreshed daily. Closed listings stay in the sample, so the picture covers roughly the past year.
- Only postings that state a per-course amount are compared. Hourly and annual quotes are reported separately and never converted.
- Where a range is posted, the top of the range is used. Figures below $500 or above $25,000 per course are excluded as mislabelled periods.
- Medians are shown, not averages, so a handful of outliers cannot move them. Pages with fewer than 25 disclosed-pay listings carry a warning.
- Roughly a quarter of adjunct postings disclose pay at all; these numbers describe the institutions that do.